Mortgage 101 – Back to School, Back to Savings

Dan Ahlstrand and Clinton Wilkins discuss financial literacy, mortgage rates, and housing market trends.

Dan Ahlstrand
Dan, welcome back to Mortgage 101. I’m Dan Ahlstrand, in for Todd this month. He’s Clinton Wilkins, and we’re talking financial literacy. We’re talking back to school. We’re talking mortgages. It’s been a fantastic show this far, and we’re doing something different this time. You actually were out in the street, and we’re talking to people and asking them what their questions are. It would have just been me all the time.

Clinton Wilkins
Of course, we were ever and let me tell you a lot of questions around rates, and where are rates going. Honestly, Dan, if I had a crystal ball I wouldn’t be doing this show. I’d probably be retired already. But I think we’ve been able to apply some good knowledge. And what are the economists saying? Where are the rates going? And, giving some good advice. But we still have a couple more. Yeah, let’s get to those questions.

Question One
Are housing prices going to decline, and by how much?

Dan Ahlstrand
Ooh, this is a good one. I get you. How many times a week do you get asked this?

Clinton Wilkins
I think anybody moving from Ontario thinks the prices are going down. Atlantic, we haven’t seen it again. We’ve seen a steady, if not an increase, in our property values over the last even year and two years, while other markets like Ontario and BC have really seen a decline, partially because the demand here in Atlantic and in Halifax and in Nova Scotia has been higher than the supply. So it’s still been increasing the amount of the property value. So right now, our values are going up about 3% so we are. I don’t think we’re ever going to see a decline here. The demand has still become more the one thing we’re certainly still doing some construction, but we’re not doing enough. So I think it’s going to take a long time for us to even really rebalance the market.

Dan Ahlstrand
There is a belief out there, Clinton, that the market is overinflated. And I know we’ve talked about this a couple of times during this edition of Mortgage 101, that during that boom time, when property values during the pandemic were going through the roof, it got too hot, too quick. You don’t think that’s the case.

Clinton Wilkins
I don’t think so. Here, we kind of right-sized our real estate. And right now, I think our average price is about 600, or so, and these are just like very close numbers, but it’s still some of the lowest cost real estate in the country. We’ve maintained our economy, and our real estate prices have increased, but not to a level that other areas of Canada have.

Housing Crunch

Dan Ahlstrand
We know that we’re in a bit of a housing crunch here, particularly in HRM, and it doesn’t take rocket scientists to take a look around and see all the cranes in the air. Most of that construction now is, is apartment rentals. There are a few, but most of its apartment rentals are. You said that we’re not building a lot of single detached homes these days. Not enough. Do you think that once, if we ever get back into balance with the housing situation, we’ll get back to that, and I will get back to single-family homes?

Clinton Wilkins
We definitely will. I would say, even going into 2026, Dan, we will. It’s an initiative from the federal government, like we need more housing units, and we were really underserved in terms of rentals. But now we have a huge number, hundreds and hundreds of units that are coming online here in Halifax, and we’re going to right-size the rentals. I’ve heard stats that even the cost of rentals has started to come down. So the average cost for a two-bedroom apartment in Halifax was about $2,500, but now I think it’s just under 2500.

Dan Ahlstrand
They’re starting to edge down, and they’re also starting to offer incentives. I had a conversation with the Landlord’s Association a week or so ago, and they said that there’s the occupancy rate is starting to fall, and that either regularizee. Renormalize is probably the best way to describe that. And some of the new construction buildings are seeing that and are offering incentives. So it’s something that we haven’t seen since 2019, 2018, you’re getting months frozen, of course.

Rental Market

Clinton Wilkins
I think a normal vacancy rate, in terms of rentals, is probably somewhere between 3-5% we were somewhere around zero in Halifax. That is not sustainable. And that means that we could see it, some people are unhomed. It’s not just that some of these unhome folks they’re actually working. They just can’t afford a place. Because 10 years ago, 15 years ago, you could get a basement apartment for $500 a month, or rent a room that doesn’t exist anymore, because the cost of housing has gone up. And although these units that are coming on are not affordable units, these are expensive, nice, luxury units that are starting. But I think what will happen is people will move into these units, get their incentives, whatever they need to do, and then some of the lower quality, lower cost, more affordable units will then open up, and it will help re-normalize everything, including people. Those who want to buy a home, because the little old man or the little old lady thought they had sold their home five years ago. If they had a place to rent. They didn’t.

Dan Ahlstrand
They need a place to go, right? Everybody does. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, earlier this month, released its annual look at incomes in HRM, $29.40 an hour in order to live, not well, but in order to live, survive. And that’s a staggering number.

Clinton Wilkins
So that’s somewhere around $60,000 a year, and that’s for an individual, a household. Maybe the number might be a little bit less, but that is a lot of money, and the incomes have not kept pace as fast as the cost of housing. And I’m not just talking about buying real estate, but I’m talking about renting everything they’ve not purchased.

Dan Ahlstrand,
We have one more question left.

Saving Money

Question Two
What’s the best way to save my money?

Clinton Wilkins
I think we saved the best for last. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this was a little kid that asked me this question, and I love this one, and this is a great time for parents to talk to their kids around back to school. Financial literacy. Kids are not learning this in school. Adults are not losing learning this in school. So it’s a great time to have these conversations over the weekend at the dinner table. And I think these conversations really start at home, and getting a regular savings plan is really important for adults who are working. I love automating it. Dan, a lot of people get paid every two weeks, twice a month. Set up a pre-authorized payment for the day that your payroll goes out, you miss it the first month, and then you don’t miss it anymore. I would focus on our RSP and tax-free, and then get a really good plan together. Oftentimes, people have a lot of room in both of those products. Make it automatic and just get it set up. Obviously, if you’re a kid, you don’t have an RRSP or a TFSA, but maybe it’s starting with just a simple savings plan. Maybe if you’re getting an allowance, and I don’t know what allowances are, Dan, but it’s $20 a week or something, maybe you’re putting $5 a week away. You have to start somewhere. But make it automatic. Do it, live by it and don’t touch it. Make it hard enough that you’re gonna get you need a couple of days to be able to touch that. I find people who dip into their savings; they just make it too easy. You can just like, debit off or credit rate off of your savings account, you need to make it more automatic and a little bit more regimented so that you can’t just get at it.

Dan Ahlstrand
And we’ve been talking about back to school throughout this entire episode. And there are savings plans for education, yes, for your kids, which they recommend you start right away, maybe when they are born, right when they’re born, or even before that being said, good opportunity to not only do that, but to kick a little aside, teach your kids how to save some money, and then, maybe down the line, they’ll have enough to to get that first house like you did.

Education and Long-Term Savings

Clinton Wilkins
Of course, I think that a child has to be born, and they also need to have a SIN number before we can set up an RSP. But RSP is a great way to put money away for the future, for a child to be able to go and do their education. And I think sometimes parents think, well, what happens if my kid doesn’t go to school? What happens to this money? Well, still, the parents’ money, you may not get the money that the government put in, but you’ll get the money that you put in at least. And again, make it automatic. I have people that I work with who have kids, and they just put their baby bonus in every month, like their child tax benefit; they don’t even see the money. They’re just putting it right into this RESP to enable these kids to have that choice. Just like the cost of housing is high, the cost of education is high, too insane, and kids without some help, I think these days it is very tough to enter the workforce, enter the housing market, and enter the education stream, right? It’s very, very tough without some health.

Dan Ahlstrand
And, it wasn’t like when you and I went to school, where it was. I mean, everything’s relative, but tuition is much higher now than they were back more than five years ago.

Clinton Wilkins
We were 25 years ago. Or maybe it certainly has changed. It’s the same with housing. Everything has gone up. So, I think sometimes it’s a decision on what the best path is forward, and that is tough. But make a plan, stick to the plan, and make that plan automatic.

Dan Ahlstrand
Boy, this was fun. Clinton, we should do this again.

Clinton Wilkins
I mean, I think we could do it for another hour. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Dan Ahlstrand
Lots of really great information in there. I’m glad you let me sit in this month. And I guess the bottom line is that back to school is a fun time. It’s a scary time for many, and that’s outside of the finances, but if you take care of things early, then maybe not as scary when your kids go to school.

Clinton Wilkins
I definitely think it’s a lot of friction for people, Dan, but I always like going into the fall, it feels like it is a new season, even though it is just September. For anybody who wants to check out our show, you can certainly check us out on teamclinton.ca/radio, we’ve hundreds of blog posts on my rate. On my website, there are links to our Spotify and Apple Music, and you can see what Dan and I look like.

Dan Ahlstrand
Thanks for joining us on this edition of Mortgage 101. We’re back next month. Take care.`